Holy Land

The Rise of Three Faiths

Judaism, Christianity, Islam

By Jeff Sheler

Photograph by James Stanfield

They are the great ancient repositories of monotheism—the religions of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad—and their visions and cultures often conflict, sometimes violently. Yet they are locked in an uneasy symbiosis, connected by history and a shared reverence for the land that bore them all from a single seed. Each traces its origins to the story of a solitary figure, an ancient patriarch and exemplar of faith, who undergirds the sacred
literature of all three.